Tiny Houses

Fitting right in with all the 'minimalizing' that I'm doing, I've been thinking of tiny houses a lot lately. I don't necessarily want to live in something under a hundred square feet like Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed Tiny Homes (see embedded video), but I dream of building one myself as a vacation home. Maybe someday we'll find a great deal on a small piece of land somewhere along the water (lake, river, ocean--doesn't matter) & then spend weekends one summer putting our little cabin together. Or better yet, build it on a trailer chassis right here at home, then tow it to our plot when's it's ready to occupy.

Though I don't ever envision living in a tiny house, I like the idea of downsizing our living space a bit. With our  1100 square feet upstairs, a garage, a tiny laundry room & a shed under the front stairs we have about 1500 square feet of indoor space to live in & put our stuff. I'd say close to a third of that space is cluttered to the point we can barely use it. There are a few cramped pathways through the junk in the garage: scrap wood, gardening tools, bikes & bike gear, old furniture, boxes of who-knows-what. My sewing room is a disaster area full of heaps of fabric, notions, craft supplies, costumes & papers with a sewing machine & serger peeking out from underneath. Oli's 'office' is more of a store room of dead electronics, old clothes & shoes, tools & more boxes full of unknown stuff. My dream is to 'minimalize' to the point that our house will feel very open & airy, if that's possible in a little post-war bungalow as short on natural light as we are. I imagine getting rid of so much unnecessary stuff that next time we move, we'll need a smaller moving truck. Maybe next time we move it could be into a smaller space, rather than continuing the upward trend of more & more space for more & more unneeded stuff.

I wish that there was a way to afford a smaller house than we have now in our area. You'd think that we could get a nicer house if we were willing to downsize, but unless we give up a yard & move into a condo apartment, that's not the case. Paradoxically, we need to own a larger house (with a basement suite or two) to be able to afford to live here.

Anyway, who knows what the future will hold, but I'll keep dreaming of a beautiful, organized smaller space. Here's some videos I've seen lately that inspired me. A renovated garage in Bordeaux, France & an interview with Deek Diedrickson of Tiny Yellow House.